God's Warning To Us
Today I’d like to cover a different part of a passage we’ve already looked at as we didn’t get to look at all it has to say to us. The subtitle for this passage in my bible is: Warning Against Refusing God. Now for the passage itself which I’m sure you’ll recognize right away:
Hebrews 12:14-17 Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son.Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears.
We’ve already discussed the very first sentence of this passage and now I’d like to try and cover some of the rest of it (there’s just too much packed into it though to cover it all today) starting with the verse,See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. In the KJV, it is translated,
Hebrews 12:15 Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled;
Although both are saying the same thing, I think the KJV gives us a better picture of what he’s saying in this case. To put it bluntly he is telling us that we are to keep our eyes open, watching to make sure that no one in our fellowship is just pretending to be saved, because if they are then they have missed the grace of God and will eventually become bitter which could then infect many of us. The author was probably thinking of this passage in the Old Testament when he said this:
Deuteronomy 29:18-21 Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the Lord our God to go and worship the gods of those nations; make sure there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison.When such a person hears the words of this oath, he invokes a blessing on himself and therefore thinks, “I will be safe, even though I persist in going my own way.” This will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry.The Lord will never be willing to forgive him; his wrath and zeal will burn against that man. All the curses written in this book will fall upon him, and the Lord will blot out his name from under heaven.The Lord will single him out from all the tribes of Israel for disaster, according to all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law.
I’m afraid that what the author is saying to us in these passages is something that today’s church seems to be scared to death to preach because it certainly goes against the worlds teaching of “tolerance”, and “I’m OK, You’re OK”. Why is the author concerned about this enough to tell us to always keep careful watch to make sure there is no one like this in our fellowship? I believe he does so for a couple of reasons.
First, true love always warns the one they love if they are in danger. I realize that again this is counter to the worlds teaching, but it is the truth. When we see a person who is just pretending to be saved and born again, they are still very much in danger of going to hell. They desperately need to be warned and told the Truth so they can really become saved. Unfortunately most of us have been brainwashed by both the world and even our churches to turn our heads the other way, and even to believe that we cannot, or should not “judge” someone that way. If that was true, then why would we be told to watch out for them??? We wouldn’t be of course. We’ve covered the false teaching that we are not to judge in other studies so I’m not going to get sidetracked on that here, regardless of how tempting it is. So the first reason we are to watch out for this is quite simply to hopefully get them really saved so that they won’t die and go to hell. Many people today that have finally come to the realization that they can judge if a person is saved or not, will still do nothing, figuring either that the unsaved person is at least going to church every Sunday so hopefully they’ll come to the truth on their own, or they’ll tell themselves it’s not their job to speak to this person—that the elders or pastor should be the one to do it. When we do that though all we’re really doing is passing the buck, and when it comes to a persons soul being lost for all eternity, that’s a very sad state of affairs. When the Lord points something like that out to us, He doesn’t do it so we can pass the buck, He shows us because He wants us to do something about it. Again though the world and even our churches have taught us all over the years to sit back, relax, do nothing, and let the pastor do it all. That however is not the way the Lord says for us to do things.
The second reason for telling us to watch out for such a person is that when someone is simply pretending to saved, they are not really understanding God’s Word, no matter how many years’s they go to church. Only those who have the Holy Spirit indwelling them can really understand God’s Word. When this happens, it causes some pretty big problems. Those who are saved can rely on the Lord’s strength to get through hard times, but this unsaved person cannot rely on the Lord because they’re not saved. So they are constantly struggling to do it all themselves in order to keep up this charade. That is a huge load for them to carry and sooner or later it will break them, and they will become bitter.
When they become bitter, they then can do a number of different things. They can begin to twist scriptures themselves to make it seem that those who really are saved are wrong and they are right, they could get caught up in another false teachers doctrine and accept that, or they could simply become bitter at God and seek to make others feel the same way. They won’t have much luck with others who are already mature in Christ, but they could injure many baby Christians with their bitterness.
Notice what it says they think in the Old Testament passage: When such a person hears the words of this oath, he invokes a blessing on himself and therefore thinks, “I will be safe, even though I persist in going my own way.”
The disciples write quite a bit to counter this thinking throughout the New Testament, just as they do to counter it’s opposite which is that those who are saved must follow all the laws and commandments, feasts etc of the old covenant. Interestingly to me, we still have both of these “sects” of false teaching today. There are the legalists, or hebrew roots folks that think you have to practically become a mini Jew to be really saved and please God, and those who think you can do anything at all you want to once you are saved and it won’t matter. Then there are those that are in the kind of in the middle. They have been told they are saved, maybe because they said a “sinners prayer” or perhaps because they were baptized as infants or children, or for any number of reasons. They don’t read their bibles much because they’re really not that interested. They usually lead a fairly worldly life except that they might go to church on Sundays. Then when they hear about the rapture or they begin to think about death, or someone confronts them with these things, they think they are safe; they think they’re going to heaven, but they’re not, because they’re really not saved. All these kinds of people are the ones we’re supposed to watch out for and see to it that they DO hear the true Gospel. Then if they do not repent, they are to be put outside the fellowship so that they don’t infect any others with their false way of living or teaching.
One of the first things that comes to my mind when I read “that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many” is this verse
1 Corinthians 5:6 … Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough?
This is why the Lord is always telling us to separate ourselves from those who are not true believers. Yet we rarely take it to heart. Look at what Paul says about this here:
Ephesians 4:17-19 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.
The more we are around “sin” the more we lose our sensitivity to it. The more “normal” it becomes. The more normal it becomes, the more acceptable it becomes. That’s exactly what’s happened in the world today, and it is unfortunately happening just as quickly in the church itself! No wonder the Lord warns us not to associate with those who are living in unrepentant sin! Notice something else Paul says in the very first line: he “insists on it in the Lord”. In other words he is saying this to us with the authority of God behind him! It’s as though God Himself were saying it to us, that’s the kind of importance that phrase holds! How much clearer can he make it before we will listen?
We will look at the rest of this tomorrow.
